Hello Lathika,
My first appreciation goes out to you for this query.
The next is of course for the contributions that have come in so far especially the last one by 81827 (I guess this person was born on Aug 27, 1981), for the lovely links attached which spells out in a nutshell "employee engagement" that leads you to the website empxtrack.com and the super contribution of Maj. Gen. B.K. Bhatia.
To make my limited points on the topic.
I must confess that this is one of the most fascinating subjects that occupies the minds of the best known people in business.
Many of us may have heard the term “employee engagement” floating around for a while; at least I've been hearing this since 1997, and it has become the prime human resources topic of the moment, but I really wonder if people do really know what it is?
I for one take some lessons on this from several young mother's for instance who are really having to face challenging times engaging children - be it at home or outside. Children can get excited quickly and can get bored equally quickly. All mother's, from time immemorial and in the times gone by when we were growing our grandfathers, and grand mother's had a knack of keeping us engaged. It was not a small task at all, and all of us know that well as to how naughty each of us when we were growing, but what a pity that we can appreciate this only when we have grown up now and have had to go through this 'engagement' exercise with our own children and children of friends in the neighborhood. You can think of employee engagement in a similar way as you would of other relationships: you know, the relationships with your acquaintances, friends, spouse, or family. You know the people with whom you have that connection with and those that you don’t — the relationships that prosper the most are the ones where that emotional connection and where commitment exists. There are people for whom you would do almost anything, and then there are those that you merely tolerate out of necessity. The same goes for employees and the organization, you don’t want employees to just tolerate you, but be engaged with your organization and your goals.
Taking that analogy forward, employee engagement is more than gathering employees around for group team building sessions or office lunches or entertaining them on every possible occasion and pampering them with lavish gifts every now and then .
There are many misconceptions, so before we take a look at what employee engagement is, let’s first start with what it isn’t.
The first thing that comes to my mind is boredom, which is an unpleasant transient state, characterized by “disinterest,” ”disengagement,” and an inability to concentrate on the task at hand. Factors that increase boredom include,
Monotony of job
Repetitiveness of the tasks and adding to all this the
Rules and limitations, leaving no scope for experimentation or creativity though many companies will make tall claims that they encourage and promote "creativity." With adherence to processes and deliverable, there is hardly any time for mass producers be it in IT or Consumables to make the job interesting.
Happiness May Not Equal Employee Engagement: While the truth is engaged employees are generally show they are happy at work. We should also know that happy employees are all not engaged employees. A happy employee may still be disengaged from the organization, they might outwardly appear to enjoy the benefits and perks of the organization and position, but they could be flat lining on engagement and working below their productivity ability. To explain this point, at a generic level, take the jobs of teachers, who all do a good job of teaching the subjects they are proficient in, but the compulsion of finishing the portions, completing the syllabus, and getting through the examination invigilation and corrections leaves them with hardly any scope to spend time with the children to help them increase their hunger for knowledge, by way of making them work on problems and asking them to research for solutions.
In many organizations seniors, managers and supervisors are deemed to be very engaged employees, as though there is an invisible, but highly potent dividing line between “us” as managers/supervisors and “them” as employees/workers. Employee engagement affects the whole organization and sensible managements are not immune to this fact, therefore, the leadership, the management and the managers/supervisors need to lead as an example of engagement to the organization.
A Textbook Definition of Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is “the degree to which workers feel job satisfaction and an emotional connection to the success of their business, resulting in improved productivity, innovation and retention” (Richelle Taylor, Excellence In Motion, Inc.).
Another popular definition of what employee engagement means is: “Personal engagement is the simultaneous employment and expression of a person’s ‘preferred self’ in task behaviors that promote connections to work and to others, personal presence (physical, cognitive, and emotional), and active, full role performances” (Denise M. Rousseau, Carnegie Mellon University).
An engaged workforce is achieved when a high number of employees have their hearts and minds aligned to both the job they do and the organization they work for.”
Engaged employees display:
Commitment to the job and organization
Pride in the job and in the organization
Willingness to advocate the benefits and advantages of the job and organization
Satisfaction with the job and organization
Engaged employees have a genuine emotional connection with the organization and a real commitment to the organization’s goals. Whenever I think of true employee engagement I can't help but think of (Artists, Atheletes, Sportmen, Writers, Scientists, etc.) people like A.R. Rahman, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Late Satyajit Ray, Late Pandit Ravi Shankar, Late Mother Theresa... to name a few, as there are many more all over the world, who all like what they do as they do it with passion, and commitment. Such people cannot be forced by anyone even with the best of intentions. Therefore employee engagment shouldn’t be used as a method to get more value from the work of the employees — that can’t work anyway produce real long-term results.
You can think of employee engagement in a similar way as you would of other relationships: you know, the relationships with your acquaintances, friends, spouse, or family. You know the people with whom you have that connection with and those that you don’t — the relationships that prosper the most are the ones where that emotional connection and where commitment exists. There are people for whom you would do almost anything, and then there are those that you merely tolerate out of necessity. The same goes for employees and the organization, you don’t want employees to just tolerate you, but be engaged with your organization and your goals.
There is an element of truth in that an employee's productivity is largely dependent on an organization’s culture and value system, — Money Doesn’t Always Motivate. The factors that might affect employees’ motivation levels, thought this can vary from to another, however, there are a few aspects that apply equally well to almost any business, any profession. Ensuring that these aspects are adequately taken care of can help you a great deal in enhancing the overall productivity of your employees.
Some of them include:
— A good business model that affords seamless growth that one may aspire to be in the "top seat"
— Ethical management, and being genuninely interested in "people as assets" not lip-service or for
the sake of balance sheets/publicity. Simple and realistic methods.
— Convenience of location/logistics
— Conducive Working Conditions
— Flexibility in timings/work from home (IT/ITES)
— Use Brand and Competition Wisely
— Variety in Work, including geographies (On-Site)
— Understanding, Guidance and Supportive , Dynamic leadership and Creation of Teams around them
— Regular Training Is Essential (Technical and Non-Technical, including Leadership)
— Recognition and Rewards
— Constant, Credible, Consistent Clear Communication and a Quick Grievance Addressing
— Combating Boredom by way of Job Rotation which decreases the likelihood of Job Boredom,
Multi–Skill Training Increases Value for an individual and Productivity for the organization
TSK. Raman
Hyderabad
08374111185
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